Americanizing a City 



The Campaign for the Detroit Night Schools 
Conducted in August-September, 191 5, by The 
Detroit Board of Commerce and Boa^rof 
Education, under the auspices of the National 
Americanization Committee and the 
Committee for Immigrants in America 



Issued by the 
National Americanization Committee 

and the 

Committee for Immigrants in America 

20 West 34th Street, New York City, 

December 15, 1915. 




H3 



oepk 



My Transfer 

MAV 1 1917 



Americanizing a City 



Getting the Adult Immigrant to School 



IF every city and town in the country today were to provide night classes" 
in which its non-English speaking adult population could learn English 
and the first principles of American citizenship, we should have the 
machinery for Americanization. For while Americanization means much 
more than the English language and civics, English is the indispensable key. A 
general provision for teaching it would be a tremendous achievement, for we 
have never had this before. We now have facilities for perhaps one immigrant 
in ten in the best equipped states, and for none at all in some states. We have 
requirements for naturalization and — no facilities for meeting them. We tell 
every immigrant that to be a citizen and a competent resident of the United 
States, he must be able to use the English language and show that he is 
"attached to the principles of the Constitution." But we have not thought 
it our responsibility to provide the ways and means. And therefore if night 
schools and classes on an adequate scale were now provided for in every 
community with a considerable foreign-born population, we should have at 
least an Americanization policy and program; and we should be infinitely 
further along on the road to national unity than we now are. 

But though we should have the machinery, we should not have Americani- 
zation. We should still have to connect the immigrant with the schools. At 
present this necessity represents half the battle of Americanization. We 
have so long left to chance and to the principle of the survival of the fittest 
the Americanization of our great foreign-born population that we cannot 
now by any single measure deal adequately with the situation we have 
created. What that situation is needs no exposition here; the headlines of 
the last six months, the history of strikes among foreign-born colonies in 
munition factories and elsewhere, the catalogue of newly formed "leagues" 
and "societies," the racial meetings, programs and resolutions, are a suffi- 
cient index. What America is facing now is not simply the economic prob- 
lem of giving the immigrant a chance as a piece of benevolent paternalism; 
in the large number of unassimilated groups in our factories and towns, we 
are facing a vast social problem involving our national unity, the preserva- 
tion of a uniform ideal of citizenship, the maintenance of industrial peace, 
and the conservation of a social ideal based on the use of the English lan- 
guage, a regard for American citizenship and American standards of living. 

3 



4 AMERICANIZING A CITY 

We must have the night schools and classes as speedily as possible. 
But behind every one that is established we must have the social force of 
the particular community, all its agencies, all its resources, all its civic sym- 
pathies, if the future of American citizenship is really to be assured. No 
educational department can carry the work through alone. These are some 
of the reasons why it cannot: 

(1) The immigrant population has not been invited to 
go to school before; it will be distrustful now. 

(2) A good many immigrants will never even know about 
the night schools — where they are located, when they are open, 
for whom they are intended, what they will teach — unless 
special effort is made to carry the news to them. 

(3) Some of them work ten or twelve hours a day. Some 
of them change their shifts every week or every two weeks. 
They are not likely to think that a night school from seven to 
nine for four nights every week has much to do with them. If 
they finish work at six o'clock, even those who know about the 
schools and are interested are not likely to feel that they could 
go home, get supper, wash and change their clothes, and get to 
night school in time. 

(4) Those in the lowest grade of American labor — work- 
ing for from $1.50 to $1.70 daily — perhaps have long come to 
feel themselves cut off from the ascending current of American 
industry. They are not likely to feel that any civic opportuni- 
ties are intended for them, or that indeed there is any point in 
trying to reach such opportunities. 

The conclusion is this: As a result of our long continued policy or lack 
of policy, getting immigrants into night schools on a scale that covers the 
needs of any community, has become a civic experiment taxing every com- 
munity resource. 

It is the purpose of this sketch to show how this can be done by outlin- 
ing such an experiment recently conducted in Detroit. 

The end attained in this case was not only an increase of 153% tn ^ ne 
actual registration in the night schools, but the awakening of the city of 
Detroit to its vast immigration problem, the assumption of definite responsi- 
bilities by many employers and others, the socializing of very varied com- 
munity forces in cooperating to this one end — the Americanization of a peculi- 
arly heterogeneous and unassimilated city. 

What was done in Detroit can be done in every city or town that has 
an unassimilated foreign population and a night school. 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 5 

Why Detroit was an Appropriate Place for the Experiment: 

Detroit is a typical immigration laboratory of the country. The de- 
velopment of the city within the last decade may be indexed under two 
heads: the automobile industry, and immigration. Not many years ago, 
Detroit was a beautiful unified town, provincial in its ideal, of conservative 
French-American traditions. To-day it typifies at home and abroad an 
expanding center of American industrialism. The small town current is 
still there; but it has been deflected at a hundred points by the workshops 
of national industries. The small town grace and the small town prejudice 
are still there also; but they have been invaded at a hundred points by all 
the races of the earth, and all the destinies of cosmopolitan America. The 
destiny of America has precipitated itself into Detroit. And Detroit, while 
proud of its industrial significance, proud of the swiftly flowing life within 
it, of its rapid passage to distinction in the eyes of America and of the world, 
is nevertheless dazed at being thus overtaken. As a typical cosmopolitan city 
of America, it has not yet accepted or found itself. 

The tide has come on too quickly to make this possible. A summary of 
the last five years proves that. The population of Detroit in 1910 was 
465,766. It is now about 700,000. An increase of 300,000 in a space of 
five years tells half of the story of the present-day Detroit. By a rapid 
expansion of the automobile industry, a city was grafted upon a town. By 
the importation of hundreds of thousands of foreign workmen, a compara- 
tively small city with the ideals, the housing, the general intentions of the 
town it supplanted became in population the seventh city in the country, 
and in industrial importance perhaps third or fourth. The map of Detroit is 
now a map of nations. Two great Polish sections cover together perhaps a 
fourth of the city's area ; well in the centre of the city is a solid Italian section. 
One whole end of the city is practically solid Hungarian — and Russians, 
Greeks, Roumanians, Servians, Jews, Belgians, Armenians, constitute smaller 
groups throughout. There are a half dozen cities, distinct in type, within 
the city's boundaries. 

In 1910, 33% of the population was foreign born, and 74% was either 
foreign born or of foreign-born parentage. It is safe to assume that the 
300,000 increase in population since 1910 has not lessened these percentages. 

The Detroit factories are placing the city high in production, high in 
importance in America. They are working out the type of American indus- 
try. But thousands of them are not working out the type of American 
citizenship or American workmen at all. 

That, says the practical observer, is not the business of industry. And 
this is true. It is not the business of industry alone ; nor of the public educa- 
tional system alone ; nor of municipal government alone ; nor of private social 
organizations alone. It is the business of all of these and it will require 



6 AMERICANIZING A CITY 

them all. Detroit has been referred to as the most American of our cities. 
To make this true in any except an industrial sense requires a work of 
assimilation so stupendous that every constructive force in the city will be 
taxed to its utmost to accomplish it. The work has been begun, and only 
begun, in the campaign to fill the night schools. But the union of the com- 
munity forces attained in this campaign gives promise for the future, and 
points a social ideal for other communities, in the same direction. 

That "English first" is the rational first step in Americanization is well 
illustrated by Detroit. Many thousands of the foreign born of Detroit 
do not speak English. In 1910 the non-English speaking numbered 38,038. 
In 1915, with a population increased by 300,000 the number of those unable 
to read, write, speak or understand English must have been extraordinarily 
increased. Last year 2,838 were enrolled in the public night schools. Allow- 
ing for those learning English in parochial schools or private classes, it is 
still evident that although a very considerable percentage of Detroit's popu- 
lation was unable to manage its affairs through the English language and to 
secure the approach to American institutions which only a knowledge of 
English can guarantee, only a very small percentage of these was on the road 
to learning English and preparing for American citizenship. 

The Campaign Made Possible. 

Last spring the Board of Education secured from the Board of Estimate 
a night school appropriation for 1915-16 double that of former years. This 
meant that there could be more elementary night schools; that they could be 
held four nights a week instead of three; that the season could cover 100 nights 
instead of 70. 

The Board of Education wished to justify the experiment and fill the 
night schools. It turned first of all to the Board of Commerce, believing 
that the employer of immigrant labor could direct non-English speaking 
workmen to the schools in a manner not open to the Board of Education. 

The Board of Commerce in Active Charge of the Campaign. 

The request for cooperation met no perfunctory response. The Board 
of Commerce had already instituted an Americanization program of its own. 
Its relief work for the unemployed through the winter of 1914-15 is well 
known. Of the thousands that besieged its Employment Bureau, the Board 
of Commerce had found that 61% of the unemployed could not speak Eng- 
lish and that the demand everywhere at this period of excess labor was for 
English-speaking men. The non-English speaking men were the first to be 
laid off and the last to be taken on. 

As a result of this experience the Board of Commerce had invited the co- 
operation of the Committee for Immigrants in America in making an immi- 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 7 

grant survey of Detroit. Upon the basis of the recommendations included in 
this report, the Board of Commerce had appointed a special committee and 
formulated a year's work, with the ultimate object of establishing a City 
Immigration Bureau. Immediately upon the receipt of the request from the 
Board of Education, this Committee decided to make the night school cam- 
paign its first work. 

Industries Give Active Support. 

The Board of Commerce, as a first step, sent out a letter to every Detroit 
industry employing over 100 men, requesting cooperation in urging all non- 
English speaking workmen in Detroit to register at the evening schools on 
September 13. 

The replies received to the first letter indicated that the importance of 
the campaign was immediately recognized by employers. Representatives 
of industries employing large numbers of immigrants were thereupon invited 
to meet at luncheon with the Education Committee of the Board of Com- 
merce. Here employers told of the conditions existing within their own 
plants, and suggested the exact ways in which they would find it most feasi- 
ble to urge night school attendance upon their men. 

As a result of the suggestions received at several of these luncheons, the 
Board of Commerce submitted the following plan to every industry in the 
city employing a considerable number of immigrants: 

Proposed Plan 

I. That some executive officer of the company take a personal interest in this 
work and follow its progress among the employees of his company. 

II. That some intelligent person in the superintendent's office, the welfare de- 
partment, or the employment office, be assigned to the work, his reports receiving the 
personal attention of the executive officer suggested above. 

III. Instruct your employment office to ask all foreigners who apply for work, 
questions similar to the following: 

1. How long have you been in America? In Detroit? 

2. Can you talk English? Can you read and write English? 

3. Have you been to night school? How long? When? 

Will you join at once? 

4. Have you taken out first citizenship papers? 

When? Show them Date? 

5. Have you taken out final papers? When? (Not asked if No. 4 

is answered in negative.) If not, are you qualified to take these out? 

Will you do so as soon as possible? 

After asking these questions, a statement similar in purpose to the following, can 
be made: 

"There is no place in our factory, in Detroit, or in this country, for men who are 
not trying to learn our language, and become good, useful citizens." 

IV. That a record may be made of every alien employee now working in your 
factory showing, among other things, the information which it is suggested should be 
asked of all foreigners who apply for work, as indicated above. 



8 AMERICANIZING A CITY 

V. Inform all superintendents and foremen having supervision over foreign 
workmen in regard to the courses offered foreigners in the public night schools, and 
the location of these schools, and instruct them to use all possible pressure to get 
their men to enroll and attend regularly. 

VI. Tell all foreign workers through their foremen or through interpreters that 
they must learn to speak the English language at once, so that your company will not 
have to talk with them through interpreters. 

VII. Distribute through the pay envelope, slips informing the workers about the 
night schools, or better still, have slips handed to each workman personally by some 
person prepared to give the men information on the spot. 

VIII. On Wednesday, September 8th, have all workmen gather together at some 
convenient point in the factory for five or six minutes, and have the executive officer 
in charge of this work talk to them through such interpreters as may be necessary 
about the night schools, and the advantages that will accrue to them if they will 
attend. 

IX. During the week of September 13th have a record made of every foreign 
employee who has enrolled in the night schools. It will be better if this information is 
secured directly by a representative of the employer from the workman. Periodically 
arrange to have someone talk to the workers about their progress at these schools, 
and find out whether they are attending regularly, and how well they are getting 
along; encourage them to stick to it by a little genuine friendly interest. The school 
authorities, upon request, will make reports of attendance and class standing to 
employers. 

X. In the event that you have to lay off any workmen, give preference, whenever 
possible, to men who are attending night schools, and otherwise conscientiously 
endeavoring to increase their value as workmen and citizens and tell them why. Let 
the man who is being laid off understand that he would have stood a better chance 
of being retained by the company, if he were doing something to learn English and 
become an American citizen. 

Attached to the plan as sent out to the industries were these suggestions: 

Tell Your Foreign Workmen on September 8th at Noon and on 
Every Other Possible Occasion That 

1. They should enroll in the night school nearest them on September 13th at 
7:00 p. m. 

2. It is easier to get a job in America if they know English. (Many firms will 
take only English-speaking men.) Firms prefer the men who are making an effort 
to learn English when given the opportunity. 

3. It is easier to keep a job in America and in Detroit if they learn English. 
Non-English-speaking men are the last to be taken on and the first to be laid off. 

4. Sixty-one per cent of the unemployed that applied at the Board of Commerce 
last winter could not speak English. 

If they had known English, work could have been found for many more of them. 
A knowledge of English is the first step toward American citizenship. It is 
impossible to become an American citizen without it. 

5. The public night schools will show men how to become citizens and will 
show them how to take out first and second papers. 

6. By attending the night schools they will learn the principles of national, state 
and city government in America. They will learn how to become intelligent voters 
in Detroit and help to settle the affairs of the community in which they live. 

7. They will learn how to protect their savings and make safe investments, and 
how to conduct their business affairs and protect their interests in America. 

8. They will learn how to make their homes real American homes. 

9. Their wives should attend the night school also. It is important for women 
to learn English in order to deal with tradesmen, and to keep up with their children 
and their husbands. 

10. They will be able to do for themselves some of the things they now have to 
pay others to do for them. 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 9 

11. Tell them to choose the night school which is nearest to their homes on 
September 13th. (List of schools followed.) 

The reception given this plan is indicated by the following extracts 
from letters. 

DETROIT STOVE WORKS. "This company will be glad to co-operate with 
your committee in calling the attention of our employees to the advantages and 
opportunities offered to all who attend the night schools." 

DODGE BROTHERS. "We realize that it will be necessary for us to work out 
our own method, but you may rest assured that we will do everything we possibly 
can to induce our workers to attend the night school." 

DETROIT CITY GAS COMPANY. "This company will be glad to co-operate 
with your committee, calling the attention of our employees to the advantages and 
opportunities offered to all persons who attend night schools." 

DETROIT CAN COMPANY. "I am endeavoring to arrange a meeting of our 
employees who do not talk, read or write the English language, and hope to have a 
gentleman present from the People's State Bank to talk to the different nationalities 
in their own language along the line suggested in your communication." 

GENERAL ALUMINUM & BRASS MFG. CO. "We will most certainly follow 
these suggestions." 

A. HARVEY'S SONS MANUFACTURING CO. "We are pleased to reply that 
we will be very glad to co-operate in any way with you in order to accomplish general 
improvement of non-English-speaking employees." 

MICHIGAN NUT AND BOLT WORKS. "I believe that we have the work 
well lined up in our own plant, but to insure no possible failure of prompt attention 
being given to any communication you may have for us, please mail direct to our 
secretary, any posters or literature that may be intended for us." 

MICHIGAN STOVE COMPANY. "We have in our works a great many em- 
ployees who do not speak English, and naturally we are interested in the concerted 
effort that is to be made along the lines suggested in your letter, and we are willing 
and anxious to co-operate with the committee in carrying forward this movement" 

MORGAN & WRIGHT. "I might say that 50 per cent, of our employees are 
foreigners, and, as you will see, it will be quite an undertaking for us to go into this 
as thoroughly as we would desire. However, we desire to assure you that we will 
endeavor as much as possible to forward this movement." 

NORTHERN ENGINEERING WORKS. "We wish to state that we are pleased 
to do anything that we can along this line of work. We have not many employees 
who cannot speak English. We have some, however, who speak English quite brokenly 
and no doubt would avail themselves of the opportunity of taking up further study 
of English in the night schools, as suggested." 

NORTHWAY MOTOR & MFG. CO. "It has been my duty to make a personal 
canvass of the shop, and I have made a list of the men (225 at present) who do not 
speak, read or write English. Every man on the list will receive a personal letter 
addressed to his home, explaining to him the advantages of his learning English and 
of the opportunity given him in the night school, and urging him to attend. 

_ "I will talk to many personally and do all my best in answering all questions and 
giving them the necessary directions. After the first or second session of the night 
school, I will check my list of the men and will arrange according to the result for a 
class or more of English to be held here at the plant." 

PACKARD MOTOR CAR COMPANY. "Referring to your letter of September 
7th. This matter has all been taken care of; the workmen were assembled and the 
information distributed. This movement will be met with hearty co-operation by the 
Packard Motor Car Company and its officials." 



10 AMERICANIZING A CITY 

THE PENINSULAR STOVE COMPANY. "I certainly approve of the work that 
the 'Board' has undertaken and would be glad to co-operate with your committee." 

PAIGE-DETROIT. "You may rest assured that I will be glad to push along the 
good cause to the limit." 

REGAL MOTOR CAR COMPANY. "Your communication regarding the inter- 
esting of all foreign-speaking working men in the English language has been noted 
with approval." 

SAXON MOTOR COMPANY. "We are thoroughly in accord with the efforts 
you are making toward the education in English of the non-English-speaking workers. 

"We ivill make it imperative for all members of our force who do not speak 
English to attend the night schools this winter." 

In some cases "Safety First" departments took charge of the work; in 
others, organized welfare departments; in others, an executive of the com- 
pany made himself personally responsible. 

Practically all industries agreed in putting up posters, assembling the men 
to urge night school attendance, and issuing the pay envelope slips provided 
by the Board of Education. 

Slips Provided by the Board of Education 



FOR FOREIGNERS ^ 

EVENING ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



LEARN HOW TO BECOME AN AMERICAN CITIZEN 

LEARN TO READ AND WRITE ENGLISH 

AND TO DO ARITHMETIC 

ENROLL AT THE SCHOOL NEAREST TO YOUR HOME 
Classes Start Monday, September 13th at 7:00 o'clock 

ASK THE BOSS ^ 



Board of Education, City of Detroit 

Cass Technical High School Print 7-9-15 50 M 



Many employers at once made it clear to their men that from this time 
on the firm would prefer those men that were attending night school and 
making a definite effort to learn English. 

But a considerable number of firms went much farther than this. The 
Saxon Company made night school attendance compulsory for its non-Eng- 
lish speaking workmen. 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 11 

The Northway Company established a factory class and then gave its 
non-English speaking men a threefold choice: (1) to attend the factory 
class; (2) to attend the public night school; (3) to be laid off. 

These are drastic measures. But it is important to remember that they 
are based upon the existence of fairly adequate facilities for attaining the 
required standards. Certain employers considered that only by thus using 
their strategic position to convince their workmen of the need of English could 
they make Detroit a city of English speaking workmen and English speaking 
social communities. They regarded the paternalism involved in making night 
school attendance mandatory as a temporary exigency. 

Other industries worked on a different principle. The Cadillac Company, 
opposed to any semblance of compulsion, preferred assembling its men in 
groups and attempting to promote night school attendance by popularizing 
the night school idea among the leaders of the various groups. 

The Solvay Company proposed a wage increase of two cents an hour 
to its employees who learned the English language. 

"I am convinced," said the efficiency engineer of the Semet-Solvay plant, "that 
only through employers offering a material inducement to the foreign laborer to learn 
English will the public night schools for non-English-speaking operatives be made a 
success. . . . The foreigner must be shown that it will be of material advantage to 
him in his job to learn the English tongue. This the employer can well afford to do, 
for the non-English-speaking laborer is a source of danger to himself and everybody 
else about the plant. I should be afraid to estimate the aggregate amount of waste 
each year to this company through a non-English-speaking operative's failing to un- 
derstand an order, with a resultant costly blunder. I have known a single blunder 
to cost as much as $2,000. Then there are thousands paid out for injuries, many of 
which may be traced directly to the inability of the employee to understand English." 

One definite result of the campaign, for all industries, was to make them 
conscious of their non-English speaking employees. Most firms immediately 
upon being asked to co-operate made some kind of census to find out at least 
how many of their men did not speak English and were proper subjects for 
a night school campaign. 

The very first returns came in, naturally, from a firm employing a small 
number of non-English speaking men, only eighty-one. There was a mixture 
of amazement and pride in the manner in which an official of the firm re- 
ported the result of the census: of the eighty-one men seventy-eight declared 
themselves eager to go to night school, of which they had known nothing. 
The other three felt they were too old to learn English. 

The census acquainted employers with their workmen. "The non-English 
speaking workman has never been one of our problems," said the welfare 
worker in one large plant. "I never knew before that we had more than a 
very few." Yet there were between five and six hundred non-English speak- 
ing employees in that plant; a colony of six hundred non-English speaking 
workmen is large enough to have a powerful influence on industrial and social 
life, even if it had never become a "problem" or a body of strikers within the 
plant. 



12 AMERICANIZING A CITY 

In short, the interest given by Detroit employers was not merely a tem- 
porary thing, but a broad constructive interest, on a civic basis. It looked 
toward the future, and realized that even when the schools were filled, three- 
fourths of the work was yet to be done. The result was a willingness to follow 
the progress of their men throughout the term. 

Probably not an employer in Detroit would have challenged the value 
of the night school idea. But some employers have never had opportunity to 
learn its practical advantages to their own plants, and its vast civic possi- 
bilities. With this in mind, Henry Ford invited sixty representative em- 
ployers of Detroit to luncheon at the Ford Plant in order that they might 
observe the Ford English school — attendance at which is mandatory for non- 
English speaking workmen — in operation, and be convinced of the practica- 
bility of having English speaking workmen in a short time. 

As the campaign advanced there was a very noticeable growth in the civic 
enthusiasm among employers. "A year or two ago," said one of the most 
prominent employers of the city, "my friends laughed at my dream of an 
English speaking factory. I believe I shall see it in a few years." 

To follow up this interest, and to keep employers in touch with the ex- 
periment, the Board of Commerce asked employers to follow definitely by 
personal visits and by inspection of records the progress of the night schools. 
The Chalmers Motor Company at once had a card printed to provide for 
such a record for every non-English speaking employee. 

Board of Education Follows Up Work of Industries 
The Superintendent of the Board of Education met every situation pre- 
sented to him by industry. A number of firms whose men changed from night 
to day shifts every week or two weeks consulted him. He assured them that 
special classes for such men would be arranged wherever numbers made it at 
all possible. The Morgan and Wright Company, employing hundreds of non- 
English speaking men have particularly late daily hours, owing to the nature 
of their work. It would be impossible for their men to reach the night school 
session in time. The Board of Education guaranteed to furnish ten regular 
teachers for classes to be held at night in the Morgan and Wright plant, if 
they would equip ten classrooms. By this arrangement between 700 and 800 
men who must otherwise have been denied the night school advantages could 
be included in its benefits. The Board of Commerce in making the arrange- 
ment recommended that part of the time thus spent in the classroom be com- 
pany time, that the men be able to get supper in the factory, and that adequate 
facilities for recreation be included. 

Church and Priests Aid 
There can be no question that employers hold the chief strategic position 
in such a campaign. But — their influence is often more forceful than sym- 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 13 

pathetic, for aside from the job they know very little about the motive forces 
in the lives of the men to whom they issue pay envelopes. It is extremely 
important to have the message of the night school carried to immigrants by 
persons and powers for whom they have a spiritual respect. In many cases, 
this influence par excellence is that of the priest. 

The minister of every foreign church was asked to announce the night 
school opening, with a strong recommendation to attend, to his congregation 
on the two Sundays immediately preceding the opening. Many of them called 
up the Board of Commerce or wrote saying that they were glad to co-operate. 

On the day before registration day, a Sunday, the Board of Commerce 
had handbills to be distributed at the various foreign churches at the close of 
services. The Police Commissioner requested that because of a prohibitory 
city ordinance the distributors stand well within the church property. A 
letter was sent to all the churches asking that the priests and pastors tele- 
phone to the Board of Commerce if they had any objection to this. Not one 
objection was received although the procedure was extraordinary for many 
churches. Many telephone messages were sent to say that the distributors 
would be welcome and that the ushers would give any assistance desired. 

A number of the large Polish and Italian parishes conduct night classes 
for adults. Because of this and because of the traditional prejudice on both 
sides between public and parochial schools, it was prophesied that not much 
active aid in the campaign would be secured from the Catholic clergy, power- 
ful as they were. The prophecy was not borne out. First, the public educa- 
tion authorities proposed conferences with parochial school teachers, in the 
fall, with reference to exchanging experience and attaining uniform methods 
of teaching citizenship and English; secondly, several of the priests personally 
visited showed an active interest in the whole question of Americanization, 
and threw their support into the cause for their parish. 

Father Herr, a Polish priest, with a parish of 25,000 Poles within which, 
except among the children, the English language in rarely heard, issued a 
statement commending the Americanization campaign to the Poles of Detroit, 
and urging a better and broader American citizenship: 

"The church stands firm for the education of its young in the schools of its 
own creation," said Father Herr. "Yet it can see nothing but good in the 
plan to educate mature non-English speaking foreigners in the public night 
schools, and in the reinforcement of this by the factory schools in which the 
foreigner may obtain the nomenclature of his job." 

Those who know the power of the church forces in the lives of the Polish 
immigrant, for instance, realize well how slow and retarded must be any 
community process of Americanization that has not the support of the church, 
and appreciate the true value of the significant spirit of co-operation thus 
demonstrated in the Detroit campaign. 



14 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 



Municipal Departments and Agencies 

The public libraries placed the large colored Americanization poster at 
headquarters and at all their branches. 

The libraries also worked out a careful distribution system by which all 
books issued to immigrant children contained a folded card issued by the 
Board of Commerce. 

Inside the folder was a sentence in various languages, addressed to the 
parents and telling them where to register for night school work. There is 
no better medium than immigrant children for making a message really reach 
the mother and father. The children were proud of the charge. Since in 
addition to the regular branch libraries Detroit has many public school 
branches which are very active in the summer in all sections of the city, this 
was an important way of reaching immigrant houses. The heads of all these 
branch libraries also co-operated by sending in to those in charge of the cam- 
paign the names of foreign born men and women with great influence in their 
community and great power for promoting the night schools among their own 
people. 

The City Recreation Commission distributed five thousand similar cards 
to immigrant children 
through their playgrounds 
and swimming pools, and 
supplied several workers to 
visit various small shops in 
the immigrant sections and 
interest shopkeepers in put- 
ting up the display posters. 
They performed the same 
service at the small moving 
picture houses in these sec- 
tions. 

The Health Board in- 
structed its sixty visiting 
nurses to carry around hand- 
bills issued in seven lan- 
guages by the Board of Com- 
merce and make definite ap- 
peals to each family that 
both men and women go to 

night school. Front page of library folder 

The Poor Commission in 
all departments of its work used the handbills and followed the same methods ; 
further, the Poor Commission instituted at the main office a regular policy of 



Can Your Mother 

and Father Speak 

English Well? 



Take this card home; 
it will tell them where 
to go to learn English 



Distributed by the 
DETROIT BOARD OF COMMERCE 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 



15 



Mto Sight School Sept M 
Can you speak. English well ? 
Do yon want to be an American citizen ? 
Do you want a better job? 
It is hard to get a job in America without English. 
GO TO NIGHT SCHOOL AND LEARN IT. 

PICK OUT THE SCHOOL NEAREST YOU IN THEUSTATTHE BOTTOMOFImS 
FAGE AND GO THERE ON SEPTEMBER 13th AT 7:00 O'CLOCK IN THE EVENING. 



tBXmm'gS&E* 



ANDATE ALLE SCUOLE 
SERALI AL13 DI SETTEMBRE 



making it clear to the non-English-speaking men and women that came there 
for assistance that they were expected to learn the English language, and that 
taking advantage of the night school facilities was for them a practical obli- 
gation. 

The Juvenile Court arranged to issue handbills with all widows' pension 
papers. 

Social Agencies 
Probably every social agency in Detroit that had any approach to foreign- 
speaking men and women contributed some aid. Workers were lent espe- 
cially by the Associated Charities, which acted as a clearing house for all the 
social agencies of the city in the campaign. One field worker was detailed by 
the Associated Charities to cover an important immigrant section just outside 

the city limits, and inter- 
est the women in register- 
ing at the public night 
schools. The men of this 
section are chiefly taken 
care of in the Ford Eng- 
lish school. 

Most of the social 
agencies of the city, pub- 
lic and private, gave def- 
inite assistance both at 
their headquarters and 
also through their investi- 
gators, visitors and branch 
offices. Some of the agen- 
cies which gave definite 
instructions to their work- 
ers on the subject of night 
schools, which circulated 
handbills through their 
specific channels, and in 
other ways contributed to 
the campaign were: The 
Y. M. C. A., the Railroad 
Y. M. C. A., the Babies' 
Milk Fund, the Michigan 
Children's Home Society, 
the Provident Loan Asso- 
ciation, the Women's Hos- 
pital and Infant's Home, the Children's Aid Society, the Girl's Protection 
League, the Harper Hospital, the Florence Crittenton Home, the Salvation 



I NAUCZOE Z1Z TfcGO J£Z VE.A. 



- ="■■" ' nyaoyMpo jo 13 071 . . .. 



C? its V m rfl'P ^ 






SCOAUDE NOAFItA MOPE 
iNTS'A IS-tea SErTMVKE. 

KDLCTLA KOALA DKNOAPTEAfl MYAlUI 



3 DET1Q 
BOON LAVOeo SENZA DCLESE. 

radk? wUt A Scute SenD U kapnfeb. 



Men]en az Estl Ukottba 
Szeptember 13-6". 



MXMJXM tO. SSTU ISM.OUAA S TAMULM MtC, 



Utte 1 VeemifB Skola IX Septeobra 

Da I ■HtriM lti*U *otnt 

Pi D ldtta baJJI pcme? I 
O >— Id f* talks if Ha r— e.>m r««ii»*in yaZt*. 
2ATO tDfTE U VECEENJU SCOLD I rlAUOTE GA 



B5»Cr SCHOOL. ....*... ,. 
CAKPSOL SCHOOL-. ...i. «. 
caKom SCHOOL On *■*. ■* >. 

Dirm school..^. ,. 

Evorrrr school „.»_ 

CKU3EL SCHOOL ...... 



Z SCHOOL .„.„ 

•U3SQA.SCHOOU. „ 

scum SCHOOL 

SOL SCHOOL. ....... ... 

TROWBKDCE SCHOOL .. 



Board of Commerce Handbill 



16 AMERICANIZING A CITY 

Army, The Neighborhood House, the Chase Street Settlement, the Neighbor- 
hood Committee, the Associated Charities, the Solvay Lodge, the Volunteers 
of America, McGregor Institute, and Grace Hospital. The United Hebrew 
Charities did active work throughout the Yiddish section, distributing hand- 
bills and seeing that the display posters were put up in small shops. 

Employment Agencies 

The three main employment bureaus of Detroit, the Employers' Associa- 
tion Bureau, the Michigan State Free Employment Bureau and the Federal 
Employment Bureau were especially interested in pressing the campaign. Two 
of the offices had special police officers deputed to give handbills to every non- 
English-speaking man that applied for work. The bills were not thrown 
around; they were carefully handed to the man and the real importance of 
them explained. The Michigan State Free Employment Bureau enclosed with 
every work ticket a handbill giving the location of the night schools and urging 
attendance. 

The Bureau of the Employers' Association does not secure work for the 
non-English speaking, or, in general, for laborers. These are turned away 
at the outside door. But the policeman in charge was instructed to see that 
every one of these men received a handbill. Every man that reaches the desk 
inside must show that he can at least write his name. Those that had diffi- 
culty in doing this were personally told about the night schools and urged to 
attend. The Employers' Association plans to follow up the night school cam- 
paign by making night school attendance a feature of their record slip and by 
detaining the men for whom they can do nothing because of lack of English 
and explaining to them, through interpreters engaged for the purpose, how 
largely getting work is dependent upon knowing English. 

The Employers' Association through the head of the Labor Bureau sent 

out to all the members of the association a letter pointing out the responsibility 

of the employer for the success of the night schools, whether those for teaching 

English to foreigners or those for enabling young mechanics to increase their 

industrial efficiency by learning more than one process in their trade: 

"Gentlemen: A great deal has been said, and much interest and enthusiasm 
aroused, over the education of the foreigner. Circulars as per copies enclosed have 
been distributed, and it is hoped liberally circulated in every plant. If you have not 
done this we urge your immediate attention. Supplies of the poster can be secured 
from the Board of Commerce, and of the pay-envelope circular from the Board of 
Education, or either or both from this office." 

Other Cooperating Agents 

Boy Scouts. On Wednesday, September 8, the same day on which the em- 
ployers were requested at noon to call their men together and urge night 
school attendance, a large force of Boy Scouts covered the immigrant sections 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 17 

of the city in a handbill distribution. This was arranged through the co- 
operation of the Boy Scout Commissioner. It was a clean cut piece of work, 
done with enthusiasm. On Sunday, the day before the opening of the night 
schools, a small squad of scouts again aided in distributing handbills at all the 
foreign language churches, of which Detroit has a large number. Every im- 
portant mass or service was covered with handbills in the language used by 
the congregation. 

Women's Club. The Twentieth Century Club, a woman's organization 
with a membership of eight hundred, organized a temporary committee to call 
up by telephone or to visit members and influential directors and patrons of 
various social organizations in order to secure their aid in arranging definite 
ways in which the particular organization could help the campaign. 

Neighboring Educational Authorities. Highland Park has already been 
mentioned as a section outside the city limits, containing many immigrant 
homes, largely those of Ford workmen. The men that do not speak English 
are compelled to go to the Ford classes. But the women — and the homes — 
remain Southern European. The public education authorities of Highland 
Park, stirred by the campaign in Detroit, made an open declaration that it 
would take care of all immigrants that could be rallied, and it invited aid in 
making a Highland Park campaign, especially among the women. It also 
proposed to put the women's classes in the afternoon — a most important con- 
sideration, for few immigrant women feel that they can leave home at night. 

Individuals. Various individuals contributed assistance of great value. 
Among these were the Federal Immigration Officer, and the Italian Vice- 
Consul, banker and steamship agent, who used his headquarters as a distribu- 
tion centre for handbills and posters, arranged interviews with prominent 
Italians in his office, and in other ways assisted the campaign in the Italian 
section. 

It happened that there were no fonts of Greek type available in Detroit 
and that the Greek Colony was therefore cut off from handbills and posters. 
The Board of Commerce appealed to a Greek merchant, an acknowledged 
leader of the Greek colony in Detroit, who called the Greeks of the colony 
together at his place and urged night school attendance, definitely pointed out 
why they should go, what they would learn and in what definite ways they 
would be assisted. He even went to the expense of having Greek handbills 
printed, ordering them from New York. 

Americanization Posters 

Nearly four thousand of the "Uncle Sam" night school posters, 20 x 32 
in., in four colors and seven languages, were displayed at various advantageous 
places throughout Detroit. 



18 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 



□ 



AmERICaFiRSTH 



The Walker Outdoor Advertising Company posted 500 of these on bill- 
boards throughout the city entirely free of charge. 

Every social agency, settlement, clinic, etc., put them up at headquarters 
and in branch offices and in several cases assumed responsibility for getting 
them up, throughout a given immigrant section. 

Factories placed them at favor- 
able places throughout the plant. 

Some of the social agencies with 
the assistance of workers from the 
Recreation Commission and other 
volunteers also took the posters to 
many small shops and saloons 
throughout all the immigrant sec- 
tions. Armed with thumb tacks and 
posters, a force of workers covered 
the small shops of the various im- 
migrant sections. The interest with 
which the man or woman store- 
keeper saw his own language under 
the figure of Uncle Sam, and the 
alacrity with which they sought the 
best display point in the shop, to- 
gether with a certain dumb appeal 
in their amazement at being thus 
approached, told the workers the 
whole story of isolation and of sep- 
arate interest. It was a spanning 
of a very deep divide. 

Representatives of the Detroit Federation of Labor and also of the Brew- 
ery Workers and Bill Posters Union agreed to have their workers place 
the posters in saloons throughout the city with a recommendation to saloon- 
keepers to put them up and keep them up. There is a theory that the 
saloonkeeper is the foe of the night-school idea. He may be. But a number 
of Detroit saloonkeepers received, and put up, the posters with keen interest. 

The employment agencies put them up where they could be seen by every 
waiting line. 




l. Bweaa o{ Education 



Handbills 

125,000 of the handbills advertising the night schools in seven languages 
and giving the location of the schools (see p. 15) were distributed through- 
out the immigrant sections. The distribution was in every case made by in- 
terested agents, and no bills were sown broadcast. They reached the people 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 19 

they were meant to reach. In one case when, on account of the difficulties of 
rallying the Boy Scouts in vacation through their Scout Masters, the squad 
that was to look after the Italian section could not be hastily enough sum- 
moned, a squad of fifteen little Sicilian boy and girl "privates" dressed in 
their best, covered the whole Italian neighborhood in record time. 

In addition to the general handbills, 15,000 handbills in Russian and in 
Polish only were distributed. A significant use of the Russian, besides at the 
Russian churches, was the distribution at a large meeting held in honor of the 
war victims of the year. 

Employers Bulletin 

The Michigan Workmen's Compensation Mutual Insurance Company 
issued a special night school bulletin to all employers on its list throughout 
Detroit and throughout Michigan with the following heading: 

Michigan Workmen' s Compensation Mutual 
Insurance Company 

English ) 
Safety > First 
America ) 

A Direct Appeal to All Employers in the City of Detroit 

The folder contained definite suggestions as to how an employer might 
promote night school attendance among his men. It was especially appropriate 
for this agency to point out to its constituents the immediate connection between 
"English First" and "Safety First." 

The Foreign Language Press 

Foreign language editors gave their support; they came personally to the 
Board of Commerce to see those in charge of the campaign, giving their sug- 
gestions and accepting others. Three of them took over large numbers of the 
handbills for neighborhood distribution. The Polish Daily Record and the 
Italian Voce del Populo agreed to conduct a regular campaign in their col- 
umns up to the time of the night school opening. Russian Life, the Italian 
Tribune, and the Hungarian News were also especially active. Next to the 
priest perhaps no other medium can so effectively commend an American idea 
to the immigrant as the newspaper in his own tongue. It is important to enlist 
the undoubted power of the foreign language press in the work of American- 
ization. Many of them are keenly interested in it. 



20 AMERICANIZING A CITY 

English Press 

From August 18 to the opening of the schools on September 13, some 
space was given every day to the night school campaign in the English press 
of Detroit, consisting of the Free Press, the News, the Journal and the Times. 
Frequently the night school stories were featured on the first page, and the 
editorial comment showed a realization of the broad civic aspect of the cam- 
paign. 

The Detroit Journal, August 30: 

"Detroit is an English-speaking American city struggling to assimilate groups of 
Europeans and Asiatics speaking all the tongues of Babel. 

"To reduce that Babel to some uniformity in the knowledge of English, the Board 
of Education and the Board of Commerce, with the aid of employers and labor organ- 
izations, have united on a campaign to bring all foreigners into the night schools. 

"Foreigners are voted in droves by bosses, but English-speaking citizens of foreign 
birth can vote for themselves. 

"English means more jobs and easier work for the toiler. It means better results 
and better orders for the employer. This country belongs not to foreigners but to 
Americans, and foreigners can gain a share in it only by becoming Americans in 
speech and action and feeling. 

"This educational campaign is economically wise, industrially shrewd, philan- 
thropically just — it is also in the sanest sense patriotic." 

The Detroit Free Press, August 30th, 1915: 

"One of the most encouraging signs of Detroit's affairs at present is the attention 
being given to the night school program for the coming winter. Never before has the 
subject occupied so much space in the newspapers at this season of the year; never 
have so many citizens of prominence in all departments of the city's business given 
so much of their time and ability to it; never perhaps were the prospects for practi- 
cally beneficial results from it so promising. 

"Our whole school system is a vital part of our nation's existence, but of all the 
work done by educational processes, it seems as if none other held the possibilities 
that are latent in the night school classes. They attract the newcomer among us and 
the adults of longer residence, ardent to learn the rudiments of their chosen environ- 
ment, bringing to their voluntary studies eager appetites for knowledge, and usually 
of an age when the full meaning of education is grasped. It is a fertile field they 
offer for ambitious instructors, and the harvest that it may yield with proper cultiva- 
tion will endure far in the future." 

The Detroit News, September 6th, 1915: 

"It is a departure that seems highly commendable because it should make for a 
greater solidarity of the nation. A universal acquaintance with the English language 
is of advantage to every American citizen. 

"As soon as a reasonable command of the language is acquired the natural preju- 
dice that exists between the native born and the foreign born fades away because the 
English-speaking alien appears to be one of us, having yielded to the process of com- 
plete assimilation." 

Other leading citizens of Detroit reinforced through the daily press the 
broad meaning of the night school campaign: 

Judge Alfred J. Murphy, in the News-Tribune, Sunday, September 5 : 

"We have gone too long on the theory that the immigrant who desires to be a 
citizen can be one. We have commended him on the taking out of his first papers and 
left him for the five intervening years to manage the English language and acquire 
knowledge of the principles of the constitution as best he could. 

"The present requirements for naturalization are by no means too high. They 
certainly should not be lower than they are. American citizenship should not come 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 21 

too easily. But the difficulties should be fair difficulties, not mechanical ones. The 
standards must be kept high, but the procedure should be as simple as the gravity of 
the process permits. Above all, the facility for acquiring the necessary educational 
qualifications for citizenship should be directly available to those desirous of attaining 
citizenship. 

"The night school will simplify matters for those immigrants who are trying to 
become American citizens. In this respect it is an Immigrant Welfare Movement— 
but it is far more than this: it is a movement to advance Americanism. For when im- 
migrants are prepared for citizenship in the public night schools, it will tend to se- 
cure uniformity in the standards for admission to citizenship. Such uniformity would 
assure that the man who comes up to file his petition and take out his final citizen 
paper really understands the obligation of citizenship, and is prepared to exercise its 
privileges intelligently. 

"America needs to foster its ideal of citizenship. The night schools with a thor- 
ough teaching of the English language, and with a course in civics form a mighty 
step in this direction." 

Charles B. Warren, President of the Board of Commerce, in the Free 

Press, Sunday, September 12: 

"The night school campaign is properly a first step in a great civic experiment in 
Detroit. It is an experiment in the assimilation of the large foreign-born population 
which constitutes so large a part of Detroit's labor assets and plays so large a part 
in the city's social make-up. 

"I am therefore especially pleased with the way in which the broad civic aspect 
of the campaign has been widely recognized in many different quarters. It is well 
to emphasize as we have emphasized, the practical advantage to employers in having 
English-speaking men in their factories, but the question is a much greater one than 
this alone, and it affects the public welfare on many other sides. 

"It will increase interest in naturalization and it will define for all foreign-born 
residents, whether they are naturalized or not, exactly what the obligations, responsi- 
bilities and privileges of American citizenship and American residence are. It is a 
good thing to define these right now, and I believe it is a part of legitimate educa- 
tional policy of the country to assume responsibility for doing this in a thorough and 
practical way." 

Magazines 

Night school material and articles were also carried in the Detroit Satur- 
day Night, an important local weekly, the Electric Weekly, the Michigan 
Manufacturers and Financial Record, the Little Stick, and in four issues of the 
Detroiter, the organ of the Detroit Board of Commerce. 

Moving Pictures 

The moving picture department of the Ford Motor Company made a 
moving picture of the line at the Employers' Association Bureau, showing the 
turning away of men that cannot speak English, thus bringing out again 
how indispensable English is to getting work. This picture was shown in 
various theatres of Detroit and elsewhere. The Kunski Company, one of the 
large moving picture exchanges of Detroit had a slide showing the poster of 
Uncle Sam and the immigrant already described, displayed in various theatres. 

Meetings 

Several prominent foreign born citizens and workers addressed various 
racial meetings on the subject of the night schools. One of these also made 
an especial point of the Detroit plan at a tuberculosis convention at Grand 



22 AMERICANIZING A CITY 

Rapids, attended by many persons from various cities and towns throughout 
the state. 

Results 

It is too soon to speak of the results of the night school campaign in De- 
troit — other than the 153% increase in registration — as final and consum- 
mated. The following facts and tendencies have, however, been noted: 

1. An increased feeling of responsibility on the part of employers. This 
shows not only in the night school campaign, but in the establishment of new 
classes within separate industries. 

2. An increased interest on the part of the Board of Education in co- 
operating with employers and with other social agencies. 

3. An increased interest in parochial night schools throughout the parishes 
of the city. Especially, a new interest in the teaching of citizenship in the 
parochial citizenship classes. 

4. The opening of more private classes for immigrants in settlements and 
social agencies. 

5. A greatly increased attention to methods of teaching English and 
civics to foreigners. The Board of Commerce has had especially prepared a 
citizenship manual done with the immediate Detroit situation in view, and 
the Board of Education is officially using this. The Board of Education has 
scrutinized methods of teaching English, decided upon a modification of the 
dramatic method, secured the aid of experts and drawn up 100 lesson leaflets 
to cover the 100 nights in the night school term. Moreover, recognizing the 
too often neglected fact that very good teachers in day school often make poor 
night school teachers, the Board of Education has authorized the services of 
a field teacher, a young man distinguished for his interesting way of teaching 
English to foreigners in one of the big factories. He will go around among 
the schools, demonstrating methods to the various teachers, taking hold of 
classes that are beginning to lose interest and in other ways keeping up the 
quality of the actual instruction. The night school teachers are to meet 
occasionally and hold "experience" sessions. 

6. An increased understanding throughout Detroit of the social value 
of assimilating the foreign population. This is shown in the attitude of both 
social agencies and of the general public. 

7. A gain in methods of co-operation on the part of various agencies, and 
a realization that the assimilation of the immigrant is not a piece of "welfare" 
work, but a fundamental civic necessity. 

8. An increase in registration for the night schools among young mechanics. 
The first night's registration in the high schools showed an increase of 25% 
over the previous year. 

9. A movement toward the establishment of a public night school policy 
in other immigrant towns and communities in Michigan. 



AMERICANIZING A CITY 23 

10. A reinforcement of industrial peace; an increased self respect among 
immigrant workmen, a better understanding between employers and workmen, 
and, therefore, a better basis for industrial adjustments. 

11. An invigorated understanding of the whole question of American 
citizenship throughout the city and state; the first step of a concerted move- 
ment toward Americanization in the fullest sense of the word. 

The immigrant is a powerful industrial, social and political factor. 
All the forces of industry, society and political wisdom are needed to 
accomplish his assimilation. In the Detroit experiment, imperfect 
and far from consummated as it is, is exemplified that unified coopera- 
tion of forces which alone can weld the many peoples of any com- 
munity into one body politic, and create throughout the nation the 
unity and power that come from common ideals, a common language, 
a uniform interpretation of citizenship. A night school campaign for 
the English language and citizenship in every city and town is an im- 
mediate practical approach to the vast and complicated problem of 
assimilation. The end to be attained is a social ideal. And the ways 
and means are those of social cooperation involving every constructive 
factor in the civic organism. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 757 503 7 



